A Simple Introduction to Hermeneutics

中圖分類號：B0 文獻標識碼：A 文章編號：1008-925X(2012)O7-0023-01

Abstract:Hermeneutics is relative to the philosophy；It is is a kind of interpretation on agent for righteousness.In Gadamer''s opinion， the \"principle of effective-history\"， \"fusion of horizons\"， and \"effective history\" are three main philosophies of hermeneutics. And hermeneutics is also developed on the basis of the idea of Schleiermacher， Dilthey， Heidegger， and so on.

Key words:hermeneutics;translation;Heidegger;Gorge Steiner;Gadamer

Introduction

Hermeneutics is a kind of interpretation on agent for righteousness. Its history can date from the ancient Greek. In the 20th century， Heidegger created a big change of hermeneutics and Gadamer established a system of hermeneutics. In Gadamer’s opinion， Gadamer， and the “principle of effective-history”， “fusion of horizons”， and “effective history” are three main philosophy of hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics

The word “Hermeneutics” comes from the Greek “Hermeneuein”， it means that explicit language can express vague meaning. And Hermeneutics concerns about comprehension and explain the meaning and philosophy of the text.

Hermeneutics is a branch of philosophy， and Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher is the first important scholar who made contribution the establishment of hermeneutics. After him， Martin Heidegger perfected the hermeneutics， and explained the deeper meaning of hermeneutics， in his opinion， the comprehension of a text should be based on the present situation not the past situation， so the fore-structure is very important. Than Hans Georg Gadamer improve the hermeneutics on the basis of the Heidegger’s theory. He held the view that hermeneutics is independent on philosophy， and the real comprehension is a kind of experience of human people should adapt the historical reality. And in Gadamer’s opinion， the “principle of effective-history”， “fusion of horizons”， and “effective history” are three main philosophies of hermeneutics.

Dilthey’s opinion is that we should build a study method for humanities thought empiricism. And the initial work for building this study method is comprehension.

All in all， the translator is the most important part in translation. The historical environment or condition of the translator dominates the process of translation. The main task of a translator is to understand the original text and then translate it into target language. This is the same process as hermeneutics， which also need comprehend firstly and explain finally.

Relationship between hermeneutics and translation

The relationship between Hermeneutics and translation is very close， because both of them contain the process of comprehension and translation. Some ideas of hermeneutics are similar to translation. And Francis Gorge Steiner also combined the hermeneutics and translation together in his book After Babel.

The first step of translation is comprehension or to understand the meaning of the text， so is hermeneutics. Hermeneutics should be based on the language， and translators should study the original text and try to comprehend the real meaning of the text， then the next step is to translate the text in another language. This step is also the same as the process of translation.

Gardamer thought that translation means explaination， and translation is a process of explaination. Technically， the main part of hermeneutics is to comprehend the original text and explain it. The purpose of translation is to use different language to explain the target text. Therefore， translation is a kind of hermeneutic of the original text.

Evans Pritchard once put forward that “The translation is the interpretation”. And George Steiner also wrote that hermeneutics interpreted the steps of translation on his book After Bable: Aspects of Language and Translation， and he illustrated the hermeneutic translation pattern in this book. Peter Newmark expounded “interpretative translation” in his book Approaches to Translation. So did J. Delisle do this job in his book Translation: An Interpretative Approach. Therefore， hermeneutics is very useful in the field translation.

Conclusion

Philosophy， especially hermeneutics is very helpful in studying translation practice and theory. It can broaden the horizon of translators and translation scholars. According to the theory of hermeneutics， the meaning of a text is not sure， so we can not get the original meaning of the writer while he or she is writing. At the same time， as the first reader of the original text， the translator will explain or translate the information of the original text on the basis of his comprehension. Thus， translation should be a unique work of the translator which is under the basis of the translator’s comprehension.

Reference:

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